


MoaF; Turnaround Backstage

by Empire_of_Tea_Sipping



Series: Masks of a Feather [1]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Akechi Goro Needs a Hug, Akechi’s a showman, Akechi’s shirtless oh boy, Before P5, F/M, Haru being Haru, Kunikazu’s an ass, Some Swearing, This will have a happy ending I assure you, fluff before angst, news interview
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28435530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empire_of_Tea_Sipping/pseuds/Empire_of_Tea_Sipping
Summary: Goro is working through an injury on stage, and Haru’s watching. When Goro’s interest lights up, she’s called onto the stage to share the spotlight with him for a moment.(This is mostly setup)
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Okumura Haru
Series: Masks of a Feather [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2082825
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	MoaF; Turnaround Backstage

March 23, 20XX

Phasing back into the state of the physical reality he had come to tolerate, a figure left the darkness of an alleyway in Kichijoji, a briefcase shining in his grasp. Stepping out of the shadows, Goro Akechi dusted himself off, his expression void of any real passion, at least for now. The dress shirt underneath his diamond-patterned blue sweater was stained red with blood in a few spots, specifically a small gash at his lower right side. Akechi didn’t really mind the injuries so much, it was part of his job at this point. As long as it didn’t show on his sweater, he should be alright until he can stitch himself back up at his apartment. Getting a buzz from his phone immediately as he began to reach for it in his pocket, the Detective checked the notification.

M. Shido: Have you finished?

Akechi groaned, pulling up the text thread and replying as he made his way to a scheduled Good Morning Japan interview.  
‘The target is dealt with. I’m heading to an interview now.’

‘Good. I’ll contact you when the next target presents itself.’

Sliding away his phone as he walked inside the building, Akechi made his way to the filming studio in a slight hurry. The sooner he could stitch up his wounds.   
After a bit of prep and makeup, Akechi arrived on stage to the delight of the people watching seeing their sparkling Detective Prince in person. He gritted his teeth in his mind, but for now, all that could be seen was a warm smile on his face as he waved to the live audience and sat down, attempting to get comfortable in the blinding, black-and-white allergic set of the show. Laying his suitcase onto his lap, Akechi braced himself for what was about to come.   
“Welcome to Good Morning Japan!”  
The familiar voice of one Shinichi Yoshizawa brought Akechi to full attention, his hands held in attention as he looked to the camera.  
“I’m Shinichi Yoshizawa, and today, out of popular demand, we bring back the up-and-coming ace detective, Goro Akechi!”  
And there it goes. The chattering and clamoring masses imprinted in the audience, expressing their love for a man that didn’t exist. The persona Akechi had built for himself was exactly what the public wanted to see; any more or less, and the illusion would be shattered utterly, leaving Akechi with nothing once again. Shinichi’s first few questions were fairly mundane, letting Akechi weave his narrative into the viewers minds like an intricate web of lies. He prodded a few laughs out of the audience, entertaining them and scouting them out in the meantime.   
One member of the live attendees came to his view; Kunikazu Okumura. Akechi had previously met him at a few of Shido’s lucrative meetings with fellow cabalists. He was fairly stock-standard in his familial life; his wife having passed in childbirth, he felt obliged to raise his sole daughter, Haru, to the best of his ability, while spreading Big Bang Burger from a small restaurant in Kanto to an incredibly lucrative corporation with restaurants and fast food places all around Japan. Rules were even spreading that construction was starting on restaurants in South Korea and Hawaii. He joined the cabal hoping its access to easy resources would improve the quality of his company. What a fool he was...judging from her age, the girl next to Kunikazu would be his daughter, Haru. Strange to see a CEO bring his daughter to what was surely a business meeti-  
“Akechi-kun?”  
The Detective snapped back into attention, looking to Shinichi with a jolt before calming down.  
“Ah...apologies, I lost myself in thought for a moment there.”  
His audience laughed on que,   
“Not a problem, Akechi-Kun. Now, getting back on topic...one of our most requested questions was if you could demonstrate your detective ability to our lovely audience?”  
A small spark lit up in Akechi’s eyes at the asking of this. While his opening into the world of detectives was formed through solving cases he made, he still held a passion for detective work, and was one of the most competent detectives in Tokyo when he wasn’t boosting his credit artificially. Standing up, Akechi smiled somewhat genuinely.  
“Certainly, Yoshizawa-kun. However, I’ll require a volunteer-“  
The studio exploded in euphoria, some of his ‘fans’ screamed out for his attention. However, Goro’s attention was already secured. He walked down to the audience, and flashed a look to Kunikazu, making a slight gesture with his head to Haru. After getting a nod from him, Akechi offered a hand to her, the girl looking up to him out of suprise. The detective presumed she wasn’t paying too much attention from that, and came to the conclusion that her father brought her here as he had something to do.  
“May I ask for your assistance?”

“O-oh...of course-“

Akechi walked Haru up to the stage as he looked over to her. She was attempting to hide as much of her head as she could into her sweater, indicating her personality involved a lot of shyness and potential insecurity. Helping Haru get up onto the platform, he held his hands together in front of him.   
“So,” Akechi began, “May I ask your name?”  
“Um, my name is Haru-“  
Akechi noticed her stop and looked to Kunikazu, who was giving her a slight look to stop. It then came to his mind that Kunikazu may not want his daughter to be hounded on by the media for being the heiress of Okumura Foods.  
“Well then, Haru, is two thousand, three hundred and seventy-five divisible by five?”  
“Of course!”  
“And how did you know so quickly?”  
“Well, all numbers with a five or a zero at the end are divisible by five, right?”  
Akechi let off a bright smile, enhanced by the lighting of the stage as he nodded slowly, turning to the camera to explain.  
“This is most commonly referred to as ‘deductive reasoning’. Most people will use assumptions to make a larger assumption and treat it as fact. However, deductive reasoners use facts to construct a hypothesis. In this example, Haru used her knowledge of divisors to come to an immediate, unfaulty conclusion.”  
As the applause rolled in, Akechi bowed to the audience and then to Haru as he heard those far-strung words.  
“Commercial break! Akechi-kun, thank you for your time!”

After finishing up and saying his goodbyes to Shinichi, Akechi made his way to a back room containing some of the prop supplies for the show. It was mostly cardboard doo-dads here and there, with a table in the center of the room. Lying his suitcase onto the table, he got a handheld mirror out of it before closing the door and beginning to strip off his clothes, letting everything below his chest remain. Holding the mirror to his side and taking some stitches from his suitcase, Akechi sat down and began to clean his wound when, out of nowhere, he heard the door open.  
“Akechi-Ku-ah!”  
The Prince groaned out as he felt his back slam into the floor, beginning to get up. He then felt a hand on his side, hot and alive compared to his own body. The man shivered at the touch, looking up to see a flustered Haru kneeling over him.   
“I-um, A-Akechi-“  
“Yes, Okumura-San?”  
Akechi then recognized that he was topless in front of a girl, and quickly slid on his dress shirt to cover his chest. He then sighed and looked at Haru, the act of a goody-two shoes prince slipping from him, and remaining oblivious that the suturing needle was hanging off of the bottom of his shirt.   
“I-I,” Haru pieced together, “...You forgot something on the studio, but I can wait if y-you’re busy…”  
“No, by all means, stay.”  
Akechi buttoned up his shirt as Haru tried to stop her cheeks from flushing a deep shade of red. When Akechi finished, he sighed and looked back at her.  
“Sorry you came at an awkward time...so, what did I leave behind?”  
“Oh! Um, this-“  
Okumura handed him a case file, to which Akechi flipped through it. Thankfully, it wasn’t any of his more ‘sensitive’ cases. However, it was an important one all the same, especially to Nijima.  
“Don’t know how the hell this got out of my briefcase...it would be a disaster if it got out to the public, too. Thank you...can I call you Haru?”  
The girl simply nodded, her curls bobbing slightly as she did so. Akechi then puthis sweater back on, stretching as he slid the file back into his suitcase. Clipping the thing shut, the Prince of The Stage looked to Haru, raising an eyebrow.  
“I assume you have something else to say?”  
“Well...I know it’s a bit rude, but I wanted to ask something from you-“  
“Go right ahead.”  
Akechi placed his spare hand onto his waist, letting him relive some of the pain he was in from the half-open wound.  
“Alright then...I was made aware of my position as heiress to Okumura Foods at a young age, but I’m still not confidant in my ability to be able to run the company in the case of something happening to my father...I was wondering if you could help me?”  
“Well, if your father put you as the heiress to his company, why don’t you ask him for help?”  
All it took was Haru’s look of regret to answer the question that tipped Akechi off: her father didn’t give a shit. He probably planned to keep her on standby in case a marriage opportunity came up from another CEO, then sell her off to the highest bidder. The abhorrentness of what came into his head caused the detective to slide his hand into his pocket, his knuckles going white as he balled it into a fist. Such was the cycle of this god-fucked, eat-or-be-eaten world...the one Akechi intended to burn to ashes by annihilating Shido and his constituents.  
“...Nevermind. When can I see you for lessons?”  
He gained a bit of satisfaction from Haru’s flusterance, as she took a slip of paper from the bottom pocket of her sweater.  
“I understand that your schedule is a bit...hazy as a detective, so maybe you could call me when you have the time? My father should be done talking to the producer soon, and he wouldn’t be too happy seeing this…”  
Akechi nodded and took the slip, putting it into his own pocket. He’d have to dig up some of his papers from the economics class he took last year, but it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle.  
“I’ll call you when I can.”  
“Thank you so much, Akechi-Kun.”  
Haru left with a faint smile, whereas the Detective Prince finished his stitching, running through everything that was going on in his head. Haru had treated him with respect, but he was astounded in the first place she even gathered the nerve to ask him for assistance in personal matters. It wasn’t something he found often...his fans never bothered to look past the external shield, and Shido only ever talked with him on business terms, for obvious reasons. And yet she came to him. Akechi didn’t know why, but it gave him a sense of satisfaction to know that she trusted him with this, even though they only met moments before.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I apologize if this was somewhat boring. As stated in the summary, this was mostly set dressing for later works to build up the relationship prior to Hatu’s dad’s Palace. Thanks you for reading this, and I hope you have a great day!


End file.
